How To Find An Affordable Room In NYC

If you want to hear some war stories that would send shivers down the spine of a hardened US Marine, talk to someone who’s been through the harrowing experience of finding an affordable room in NYC. There are more masterful bait-and-switch artists then there are dudes working hot dog stands. Some roommates will have you knocking on the door to your local insane asylum for just one night of “peace and quiet.” And let’s not even start on the astronomical cost of living.

But you aren’t going to let that stop you. Why? Because NYC is awesome. It is, without exaggeration, one of the most storied, entertaining, opportunity-rich places in the entire freaking world. Whether you’re trying to move here or you are already proud to be a New Yorker, this isn’t just a place to live. It’s a dream in real time, an unshakable ambition.

We both know you aren’t going to give up just because it’s tough and expensive. If you were that kind of person, you’d never have survived the plane ride over or made it a goal in the first place. So lets examine the different ways to find an affordable room in NYC and learn from the mistakes of others. Because New Yorkers gotta stick together.

Let Someone Else Find A Room In NYC For You

Brokers are actually kind of unique to NYC. In the rest of the US, people usually just handle apartment searches themselves. Lots of people turn to brokers in the hope that they will provide a competitive rate. In fact, some apartment complexes in NYC won’t even talk to you unless you go through a broker. Like you’re an author trying to submit a book to a major publisher who refuses you for lacking an agent. Only in New York, right?

The reason for this bizarre phenomenon is pretty simple. Supply and demand. Despite the high cost of living, apartments of any quality from dubious to divine go fast. Let’s keep in mind, NYC rocks the house down. Like, every day and in every way. (Okay, except apartment searching. Obviously.) So lots of landowners let brokers do the heavy lifting when it comes to filling vacancies. The drawback for you is that brokers charge a fee, often 15% or even more. To further complicate things, there is no shortage of scammers posing as reliable brokers. So there’s no guarantee that working with a broker will be cheaper or safer. On to the next approach.

Find A Room In NYC On Your Own

Walk, drive, or take the train. Finding a room on your own sounds like a bright alternative compared to dealing with shady brokers or getting a door slammed shut in your face by an uppity landlord. But the biggest drawback is that New York. Is. Massive. Like, mind-bogglingly gargantuan. There is a reason that, in the movies, any monster wrecking New York is the size of a skyscraper. Because it would take a smaller monster way too long and we’ve all got places to be. If you try to tackle it on your own, you’ll never see 99% of what’s out there, even if your one of those crazy marathon peoples who thinks running 26.2 miles in New York’s 90% humidity in the dead of summer is somehow a good time. It’s impossible to get a decent sampling of what’s out there on your own. Which brings us to the final approach. And if you were worried there wasn’t a good way to find an affordable room in NYC, fret not. We’ve saved the best for last.

Find A Room In NYC With Roomiapp.com

Roomiapp.com has got you covered. We’ve got easy to search listings to help you find a room in NYC and a roommate too. You can search by lifestyle choices, cost, location, and more. You can dodge dirty scammers because we have a super in-depth verification process for our Trusted Listings. You don’t have to pound the pavement. Instead, you can do search from the comfort of your current home, whether that is in NYC or beyond. So check out theNYC listings on Roomi and get started now.

The process is so easy that you might feel shorted, like you aren’t an official New Yorker if you lack an apartment searching war story. But don’t you worry . . .